Washing machine appliances generally form a wash fluid to clean clothing articles disposed within a wash basket of the appliance. The wash fluid can include water and various fluid additives, e.g., detergent, fabric softener, and/or bleach. The fluid additives can be mixed with water within a wash tub of the appliance in order to form the wash fluid.
To introduce fluid additive into the wash tub, a user can manually add the fluid additive to the wash tub and/or the wash basket. For example, after starting the appliance, the user can pour detergent directly into the wash basket. Conversely, certain washing machine appliances include features for receiving fluid additives and dispensing the fluid additives during operation of the appliance. For example, a tray or container mounted to a top panel of a vertical axis washing machine appliance can receive a fluid additive and direct the fluid additive into a wash tub of the appliance. Similarly, a horizontal axis washing machine appliance can include a drawer with a container mounted therein that receives a fluid additive and directs the fluid additive into a wash tub of the appliance.
The washing machine appliance's wash basket is typically rotatably mounted within the wash tub. Thus, the wash basket spins within the wash tub during operation of the appliance. The containers described above generally direct fluid additives into a gap defined between the wash tub and the wash basket. However, the location of the gap relative to the containers can change, particularly when the wash basket is spinning and the washing machine is operating out of level. In turn, fluid additive intended to be directed into the gap between the wash tub and wash basket can spill out of the appliance or onto articles in the wash basket when the shape of the gap changes. For example, bleach intended to be directed into the gap can damage clothing articles if the bleach is applied directly onto the articles in the wash basket rather than entering the gap between the wash tub and wash basket.
In particular, such containers may provide a time-delay functionality, whereby additive may be stored in a reservoir of the container prior to a wash cycle and the washing machine appliance configured to add water to the reservoir at a desired time during the wash cycle until the additive and water mixture are drawn from the reservoir, e.g., by a siphon valve. In some instances, the storage capacity of the reservoir may be overcome, such as when a user adds too much additive or when the inflow rate of water is much greater than the rate at which fluid is siphoned out of the reservoir. Thus, an overflow feature may be provided in the container for directing excess fluid into the wash tub. However, the outlet of the overflow feature may be located away from the primary outlet of the container, making overflow more likely to miss the gap, resulting in higher rates of fluid that is intended to be directed into the gap between the wash tub and wash basket spilling out of the appliance or onto articles in the wash basket in overflow conditions.
Accordingly, a washing machine appliance with features for improved handling of fluid additives would be useful. In particular, a washing machine appliance with features for more reliably directing fluid additives into a small accurate target zone within a gap between a wash basket and a wash tub of the appliance, even in the event of an overflow, would be useful.